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Snow and ice, measured across real winters

The median winter takes 20 clearings; the honest range across twenty-six of them is 9 to 34. Here is winter as it actually behaves.

A hard Minneapolis winter is several times the work of a mild one: across 26 replayed winters the median is 20 clearings, but the range runs 9 to 34 — anyone quoting one flat seasonal price is charging you to carry that risk. Ice adds a median of 10 treatable events on its own calendar, against a median snowfall of about 31 inches.

The winter, month by month · median clearings and ice treatments across 26 replayed seasons

Snow clearingsJan: median 4 snow clearings4Feb: median 4 snow clearings4Mar: median 3 snow clearings3Apr: median 1 snow clearings1Nov: median 2 snow clearings2Dec: median 5 snow clearings5Ice treatmentsJan: median 2 ice treatments2Feb: median 1 ice treatments1Mar: median 2 ice treatments2Nov: median 2 ice treatments2Dec: median 2 ice treatments2 JFMAMJJASOND

Snow has no minimum spacing — ever

A lawn can be cut too often; a driveway cannot be cleared too often. Mowing carries a health floor on visit spacing, and applying that logic to snow would be a genuine safety error. The two schedules are deliberately not symmetrical.

Ice is the other half of the job

It peaks in different months than snowfall and a plow can’t clear it. The schedule treats it as its own service with its own triggers — including thaw-refreeze, which doesn’t wait for a depth threshold.

Sidewalk ordinances are law, not preference

Where a city sets a clearing requirement, the schedule treats it as a floor that overrides a homeowner’s more relaxed threshold — you cannot configure your way into a citation.

A budget as a range across many winters

How many clearings a typical winter needs and how much that has varied across decades of real winters — so a season’s work can be understood before anyone quotes for it, rather than after.

Ice melt is chemistry, and most of what people believe is wrong

Ice melted per pound of rock salt, by pavement temperature

below the practical floor 10 lb20 lb30 lb40 lb 30°F: one pound of salt melts 46.3 lb of ice25°F: one pound of salt melts 14.4 lb of ice20°F: one pound of salt melts 8.6 lb of ice15°F: one pound of salt melts 6.3 lb of ice10°F: one pound of salt melts 4.9 lb of ice5°F: one pound of salt melts 4.1 lb of ice0°F: one pound of salt melts 3.7 lb of ice 46 lb of ice per lb of salt at 30°F4 lb at 5°F 0°F5°F10°F15°F20°F25°F30°F pavement temperature

And how far down each product keeps working at all · the practical floors the schedule plans against

-20°F-10°F0°F10°F20°F32°F Calcium chlorideCalcium chloride: works down to about -20°F-20°FMagnesium chlorideMagnesium chloride: works down to about -9°F-9°F"Pet-safe" blend (MgCl2)"Pet-safe" blend (MgCl2): works down to about -9°F-9°FRock salt / brineRock salt / brine: works down to about 16°F16°FCMA / acetateCMA / acetate: works down to about 19°F19°FUrea (fertilizer)Urea (fertilizer): works down to about 25°F25°FSand — traction only, melts nothinggrip at any temperature · zero melt pavement temperature it still works at
“Pet-safe” usually means magnesium chloride, which is still a chloride. It is gentler on paws than rock salt; it is not free of the effects chlorides have on concrete and planting beds. We would rather state that than repeat the label. And we sell no de-icer of any kind — this is just the chemistry.

What this is not

We do not measure your driveway’s square footage from imagery yet — the measured part is the season itself: how many events, in which months, and what the chemistry can and cannot do. More on how the modeling works: the intelligence page.